week #48 - Light the World initiative!

How`s it going?! Hope that you guys had a great Thanksgiving weekend! From what I saw looks like you guys had a good time! Well they don`t celebrate Thanksgiving here so I definitely missed out! Holidays here in the mish seem just like normal days, it`s kinda weird.

My week was alright. Every single day this week we had an activity in the church to prepare for branch conference. On Tuesday we had an activity from Elder`s quorum about family history. Since we are counselors in Elder`s quorum we had to help out a lot with that. It was pretty interesting, I learned a lot more about family history work! It`s pretty hard for the members to head down to Santiago to go to the temple. A couple times they do a trip as a branch to go to the temple but it`s pretty hard for the members to make it down to the temple. Then on Friday we had the activity from the missionaries. We did who wants to be a millionaire with questions about the scriptures and stuff. It was actually a lot of fun. Elder Jaramillo and Elder Oliveira dressed up and everything which was kinda funny. There`s a pic of the activity. A lot of the youth showed up and not a lot of the adults. It was pretty much a mutual activity.... But yeah that was the fun/good part of my week.

Not going to lie the rest of the week was kinda lame. We made a list of people who could be ready to be baptized and made plans for every one of them but everything fell.. Also I haven`t been super united with my comp either. He has a lot of different thoughts about the work than I do. He`s also a little different and he knows/admits that he doesn`t have common sense.. We`re good friends and everything but we`re just really different and think differently. But he`s a good missionary and a great guy.

Also this week the new initiative from the church came out for Christmas so we`ve been showing the video to a lot of people. It is a really awesome video so if you haven`t seen it yet you should! It`s called "light the world". The church is doing like 25 days of service or 25 ways in how we can be like Christ. It`s actually really cool! Light the World

This next week coming up are transfers! So we`ll see if I leave from Tal-Tal or if there are any changes this next week. I`ve been here in Tal-Tal for quite a while so we`ll see what happens! Maybe next week I`ll be writing you guys in a new city!

Oh I forgot to write as well about a crazy story that happened to us this Monday. So last Monday we actually went down to Chañaral again to play soccer with the zone. So we got down there in time, this time. We played soccer and had a good time with the zone and then we went to turbus to take the bus back home, everything all good. Then we looked at our tickets and they said 6:55 so we arrived on time but.... The tickets were for 6:55 in the morning! The office bought the wrong tickets and bought them for the next day in the morning. Well we also can`t sleep in the church or anything so the office told us to look for a member or for a hotel. We ended up finally finding a member who let us sleep in his house for the night. He was a really cool dude. His name is Raul Johnson and we talked a lot with him that night. He does harpoon fishing and catches huge fish. He was really cool and it was pretty fun to talk with him. He also has a daughter who lives there in the states, in Atlanta, who is also a member. But yeah we made it back home in time and everything is good now.

Also we are kinda out of money here in our pension. We had to buy our tickets to travel a couple weeks ago and we still haven`t received this money back from the office so we are completely out of money.... I have been living off of oatmeal and rice pretty much haha. Well at least we have our mamita for lunch haha. It`s been pretty interesting but also kinda lame as well. I feel like there are a lot of trials going on right now. But I`ve gotta be thankful for them right?

Well hopefully this next week will be a better one! Hope that you guys have a great week as well! Love you guys a ton!

Love
Elder Newkirk

Pics:

The Christmas decorations are starting to go up!

Friday`s "Who Wants to be a Millionare" Activity!

week #47 - God is a God of miracles!

Hey,

Well not going to lie this week was pretty boring and kinda stressful. We have been trying to work really hard so that we can baptize this month but it just seems like everything is going against us. I feel good about the work that I`m doing and feel like I am working harder than I ever have in my mission but it`s hard because I haven`t seen the fruits. But you just gotta keep working and trying. God is a God of miracles, just have to go with faith this next week that we can have a baptism. I hoping that Kambry and Matias will be baptized soon. They are Yerack and Carlitos`s little brother and sister who still aren`t baptized. Their parent won`t let them get baptized and told us that they have to wait until they are older to be able to decide. Kambry is 9 and Matias is 11. We have been working a lot with them and I feel like now is finally the time and I feel like they`re pretty close to getting baptized.

Tuesday we watched the Chile game with a investigator which was pretty funny. We went to Gielberto`s house because he is an old dude who lives alone and we have permission to watch Chile play if we watch with investigators or if it has a mission purpose. So we just went over to his house to watch it because he didn`t have anyone there to watch the game with him. But it was pretty funny because my comp got pretty into the game. But Chile ended up winning, Alexis Sanchez had some pretty awesome goals. Vamos Chile! Chi-Chi-Chi Le-Le-Le viva Chile!

Also on Saturday the other missionaries had a baptism and my convert, Yerack, baptized! He baptized his girlfriend, Javiera, who I was able to interview. Don`t worry I made sure that she wasn`t just getting baptized for her bf haha. But no she`s super awesome as well and gained a testimony. Also Yerack bore his testimony in the baptism and told everyone that he didn`t convince her at all or talk too much to her about it and that she actually made the decision. But it was funny because that was the first thing that he said when he got up to share his testimony. But it was awesome to see one of my converts baptizing someone else!

Other than that this week has just been some walking and contacting and teaching and just the normal week. We found some good people to start teaching this week as well. We passed our goal of contacts in the street a lot this week as well, we ended up contacting 59 people which was pretty cool as well. Hopefully one of those 59 we`ll be able to teach and will end up member of the church.

Yesterday was also the primary program. It was actually really cool and a little different because there aren`t as many kids. All of them gave like short 1-2 min talks with singing in between but they tied together and lot of stuff and it was really well. They also decorated the sacrament room which was pretty cool. I took some photos after wards so you`ll be able to see. But it was probably one of the best primary programs that I`ve seen, not gunna lie.

The reason I said I might not get my package before is because we only receive packages every first of the month. Ever first thursday of every month the Zone Leaders have leadership training in Antofagasta(in the mission office). And then when the Zone leaders return they bring all the packages and give out the packages to us. So that`s why if it doesn`t get in before leadership training then I`ll get it in January, the next leadership training. Hopefully that makes a little sense haha.

Last week when we ate with the sister in the mountain we had a member bring us up there haha. There`s no way I`m walking up that. It would probably take us like a good hour walking.

Yeah Ping-Pong is pretty popular down here. There are a lot of youth that play so we normally have an activity every week to invite youth and investigators to play. We do like tournaments and doubles and stuff. It is a lot of fun because there are a lof of people who play really well. I have improved a ton haha.

I hope that you guys have a great Thanksgiving weekend! They don`t celebrate Thanksgiving here so send me some turkey! Hope that you guys have a great time in Boise this weekend with the family! Love you guys!

Love
Elder Newkirk

Primary program

Primary program

Primary program

Selfie with Gielberto

The District

Funny pic of Carlitos

Javiera`s Baptism!

week#46 - past week travelling to Chanarel and zn

Hey everyone!

Hope that you guys had a great week. My week was pretty good. Last Monday we went off to Chañaral to play some soccer with the zone. The bus arrived and we were all on the bus ready to go and.... the bus broke... Turbus is the company that we travel in and the most popular here in Chile but not going to lie the buses are really lame, they are always late, and they break a lot. So we had to sit and wait like 2 hours for the next bus to arrive. We didn´t have a ton of time to play soccer but everything went well and we had fun. That´s also why I didn´t have time to write again!

Then on Tuesday we traveled again to Chañaral for our zone conference. So we lost like 2 days of work because of the traveling. I actually like to travel, but I don´t like to lose days to work.

Then from there the week was pretty normal, just walking, contacting, teaching, and finding. It was actually a really good week to find new people to teach. We found some really awesome people that we started teaching this week. It´s crazy how the Lord puts people in our path. You have to always be attent to the spirit to be guided to those who are prepared. The Lord is preparing people every single day. In our Zone Conference someone shared something that changed my perspective. They told a story about someone who joined the church as an adult who got his patricarcle blessing and in his blessing it said that he was prepared to recieve the gospel a long time ago but someone chose not to serve a mission so he had to wait until now. They explained to us how we need to be ready to find those who the Lord is preparing because we pass by so many people every single day. I also don´t want someone to recieve their patriaricle blessing later on in life saying that you didn´t receive the gospel until now because Elder Newkirk didn´t talk to you in the street or didn´t follow a prompting of the spirit.

Friday we actually did some service for Guierrmo. They are building their house out back so we went and help out do some cleaning. We also helped clean out their pool(without water). There was a ton of dust and stuff at the bottom and they also need to fix a few things for their pool. But after Guierrmo invited us to eat lunch with the family which was pretty cool because we were able to teach the family. They are really cool people. Hopefully they´ll be able to progress and go to church and stuff.

Every Saturday in the morning we have been playing ping-pong in the church and it has actually been pretty successful. Through ping-pong we have 2 dates for people to get baptized. We gave as well the other missionaries someone to teach who also has a baptism date. So ping-pong has been successful and fun.

Yesterday in Church was good. We had 4 investigators come to church which is normal for us. There were a lot more investigators who were suppose to come to church but didn´t show up. We need to be more diligent in the mornings before church to go out and bring people to church. We always call people in the morning to wake them up but we need to get out in the streets a lot earlier to look for the investigators to bring them to church. Also next week is the branch primary program which should be interesting because there isn´t a ton of primary, so we´ll see how it goes! And then the week after that we have branch conference, like stake conference.

Sounds like you are having a fun time on your new bike, but here comes winter. Better get some riding in before it gets cold. And while it is getting cold for you guys it has been getting real hot here for us. We haven´t even hit summer yet so we´ll see how things go and how hot it gets.

In the pic that was Yerack with the knife haha. Carlitos is the one next to me with the face paint and military clothes.

Don´t worry I definitely heard about the elections. A lot of people asking me what I thought about Donald Trump being the new president, and I honestly have no clue. I didn´t see anything about the elections. It seems like a lot of people here in Chile wanted Hillary to be president because they think that Trump doesn´t like latinos and that he doesn´t have any experience. But I guess we´ll find out what happens with Trump as president for the next 4 years.

Well today should just be a chill P-day, not too much going on, same with this week. Hope that you guys have a good week! Love you guys!

Love
Elder Newkirk

We had lunch yesterday with an older sister who lives outside of tal-tal in the mountains, so I took a couple of pics.

We had lunch yesterday with an older sister who lives outside of tal-tal in the mountains, so I took a couple of pics.

We had lunch yesterday with an older sister who lives outside of tal-tal in the mountains, so I took a couple of pics.

We had lunch yesterday with an older sister who lives outside of tal-tal in the mountains, so I took a couple of pics.

In Chañaral and the zone conference.

Service in Guierrmo´s house. His house is really cool, super different from normal northern Chile. Reminded me a lot of the states actually. Also his kitchen is outside in like a hawaiian type thing which was also really cool.

zone conference

Service in Guierrmo´s house. His house is really cool, super different from normal northern Chile. Reminded me a lot of the states actually. Also his kitchen is outside in like a hawaiian type thing which was also really cool.

Service in Guierrmo´s house. His house is really cool, super different from normal northern Chile. Reminded me a lot of the states actually. Also his kitchen is outside in like a hawaiian type thing which was also really cool.

week#45 -- heading to Chanarel for a zone activity.

Hey just going to write this real fast because our bus leaves to Chañaral in like 15 minutes! We are heading down to Chañaral today to do an activity with the zone, have another bbq and play soccer! I`ll try and get on a computer down there to be able to actually write you but we`ll see if I have time down there! But I`ll send you the photos now from this week!

Everything is going good here and we had a decent week. It was still kinda just a normal week but we worked really well this week.

The pics that I`m going to send is from Halloween last week. Actually there were a lot of kids and people out trick or treating. This is with the family Becerra. We passed by because we were close to their house and they were all preparing to leave to go trick or treating so we took a couple photos.

The other photo is when we played basketball. Brother Chavez, or Edwin, actually plays decently. But I pretty much just dominated the floor. But it was a lot of fun playing with all the youth. Guierrmo`s kid also came to play with us, his name is Willie. He`s pretty cool as well! 

But yeah it`s about that time for the bus to go so I can`t write anymore right now but I`m going to try to write a little bit more there in Chañaral so we`ll see! but if not just know that I`m all good and that everything is going well!

Thanks for the updates on the NBA. Sounds like it should be a pretty good season! Wish I could watch it! Go Thunder!

But yeah if I don`t have time in Chañeral to write, Love you guys and hope you have an amazing week!

Love

Elder Newkirk

week #31 -- Lots of changes - moving in with Zone leaders - many baptisms this transfer!

Hey how`s it going? 

This week was pretty great. I had a lot of fun this week. We actually didn`t do too much but it was a fun week. First we had intercambios with the zone leaders on Tuesday and Wednesday. I was with Elder Abalos during the intercambio. He is pretty awesome and is from Utah. But something a little crazy happened to us while we were down there. So when we first got there we were walking to their house from TurBus and the owner of their house stopped us to talk. He was saying that he got an email from the mission office about the contract of the house ending and was asking them if they knew anything about it. So after we called the mission office and asked what was happening. Well this week is the week of cambios and with the new president he is starting to change a lot of different things. So what happened is that he is taking out the zone leaders from Chañaral and going to put them here in TalTal. So the zone leaders are coming here today, Elder Abalos and Elder Phillips. And they are taking out the two elder`s that are here and replacing them with the zone leaders. So Elder Torrico and Elder Boyack are going to El Salvador like 4 hours away but in the same zone. These cambios have been pretty crazy and the new president is changing a lot of different things around. And today we will be moving into the house of the other sector here in TalTal for like 2 weeks until we get our new house where all 4 of us will be living. So yeah a lot happened with these cambios but I`m still here in TalTal with my comp Elder Fernandez for another 6 weeks.

Then on Thursday we were practically preparing for an activity that happened on Friday. We did a talent show as a branch and we were trying to prepare something to do for the talent show. At first we tried to put together a dance, we had a lot of different ideas for the dance but nothing really worked out and worked well together. Then we tried to think of something else like a song to sing or a sketch or something. But in the end we didn`t end up doing anything. We spent like all day Thursday preparing to try and do something and it didn`t work out haha. We had a lot of fun and laughed a lot while preparing but yeah it was really just a waste of time. But on Friday I was the only missionary that performed something for the talent show. I did the magic trick that I learned from Hailey, Thanks Hailey!, and everyone loved it. Afterwards all the youth were asking me how I did it and everything. 

Saturday we really didn`t do too much, we learned the transfers, then visted a few people in the day but other than that nothing really happened.

But yesterday was really good. Yesterday Camila came to church and said that she really liked it and felt good there. So I`m pretty sure that she`ll keep coming and be baptized in a few weeks! Then after church we went to eat with the Family Perez. President Perez is the president of the Elders quorum and was the branch president before for like 15 years. Their family is really cool and they are super rich. The lunch that they made for us was probably one of the best lunches that I`ve had in the mission. It reminded me a lot of the food from home. Then after that we visited the family Becerra, which is the family that I talked about last week and shared with them about sealing and temples which went really well. Then the best part of yesterday is that we had a family home evening with another part family that we are teaching. It is a couple with 3 little kids. They aren`t married yet but the "wife", Jimena, is a member and has been for a long time and her "husband", Willams, is an investigator. He has been attending for a while and met with missionaries a while ago but he is super awesome. They read the scriptures and pray everyday and are progressing a lot. But yesterday for the family home evening we talked with them about baptism and the holy ghost. They accepted a date to get married and to be baptized the next day. So on September 9th is the goal for their wedding and the 10th for the baptism. And Williams and his son, Ismael, will be baptized the same day. But it was really awesome and went really well. So let`s hope that they keep with this goal because this weekend is the last weekend of this transfer. 

I`m actually really excited for this transfer because if things go well we should have like 5 baptisms and we will also be living with 2 other missionaries this week which should be a lot of fun. 

So I actually was able to get my camera charged, Elder Phillips (the zone leader), has the same charger for my battery so I used his charger to charge my battery. But still haven`t found mine... I thought that I brought it here to TalTal but I have no clue where it is, hopefully while we are moving everything this week we`ll be able to find it.

When we will live with the other elders everything is the same. You just do personal study then you have study with your comp, not the 4 of us together. But yeah definitely will be a lot more fun than just a house of 2 missionaries. More people to hang out with and to talk to. 

Thanks for the money that you`ll be putting in my account for my birthday! I`ll probably try and take some out this week. I think that our mamita might do something like make a cake or something if I mention that my birthday is this week, but I should probably mention it... I don`t know, in the mission holidays or birthday`s don`t feel like anything special haha. They`re just normal days..

Yes a lot of people here travel around. Especially during breaks because there really isn`t anything to do here. Here is TalTal they don`t really have anything. Also it is super expensive here. It is one of the most expensive parts of the mission and they don`t have a lot of products here in taltal. A lot of people leave out of town to buy other things and things for cheaper or just leave the city to actually be able to do something and have some fun haha.

Yeah when I was writing last week we had that 6.2 earthquake here. But here in Chile the people are prepared for the earthquakes because they are pretty common. So nothing got destroyed and nothing really happened. Just a few things fell. Actually in Chañalral when the earthquake happened like a large dust cloud got shot into the air and like the whole city was just blocked with dust in the air. But that`s about all that happened with the earthquake.

Sounds awesome that you`ll be able to take gpa`s bike around legally this next week. Should be fun!

Yeah I was able to open the audio file, thanks for singing happy birthday to me! Hope you guys have a great week! Love you guys!

Love

Elder Newkirk

Hope this answers your question if we have to worry about Tsunami´s here. These signs are all over town in almost every street coner.

week #30 -- 6.2 earthquake while writing today! New investigators as well.

Hi!

This week went by super fast and it feels like I was just writing the other day, oh wait I practically did. But everything's going well this week! 

I got to see a lot of the photos from Craig´s wedding this last weekend. Looks like you guys had a great time down there!

This last week has been super crazy with all this travelling and everything. And then tomorrow guess what we have to do again... Travel. Tomorrow we have to travel down to Chañeral again to have an intercambio with the zone leaders. But I actually don´t mind all this traveling that we´ve been doing, a nice break for a few hours haha. It has also been a lot of fun to see other areas of the mission and to get to know other places. Also it has been awesome meeting the new mission president as well.

About the Disney movies.. We still haven´t gotten the list of movies yet. I´m feeling that it will just be like older classic Disney movies, because if it was just Disney then we could watch Marvel and Star Wars and all that haha. But I´m feeling that the list will come in a few weeks. Probably after transfers this next week. And speaking of transfers this is the last week of this transfer and on Saturday we´ll be getting a call if my comp leaves or not. Not going to lie I hope we get transfers....

The rules for playing soccer have now changed. We can now just play soccer with members and investigators and there doesn´t need to be sisters there. We actually played this morning with some youth and some members which was pretty fun. We have to play a little carefully though so we don´t end up breaking anything but playing soccer has been a lot of fun!

Elder Gali is from St.George. But it was great seeing him again!

I think that tomorrow I´ll have the opportunity to charge my camera. If I remember correctly I think one of the zone leaders have the same camera charger so I´ll try and use that tomorrow so that I can finally have my camera again. But I still haven´t been able to find my charger. I thought that I brought it with me to Taltal haha.

Sweet, when I get the money in my account just let me know and I can try and take some out. There is a little that I want to buy down here. I want to get a backpack for when we are traveling and I also want to buy some nice sunglasses. 

Also here in Taltal we are in the process of moving houses. The house that we are living in, the owner wants to do some changes and stuff to the house. So that means that we have to move and the President wants all the 4 missionaries to move into a new house together. This week we actually found a house in the middle of the two sectors that is actually really good. So we´ll probably be moving houses and everything pretty soon. Maybe with the move I´ll actually be able to find my charger...

Here in Taltal we have a part member family that we are working with. A few of them are active members and one of them got baptized pretty recently, Carlitos is like 15 years old. The mom and the grandma are also active members. There are also two kids in this family that attend like every Sunday and go to all the activities that still aren´t baptized and this Sunday one of them said that they wanted to get baptized. So I´m pretty sure that we´ll have a baptism soon.

Also this week we met a new person. We have visited this house before because the mom of this girl is a member less active. But we passed by one day this week with a member so that we could enter and we taught her. We taught here about The Restoration of the church and afterwards she said that she knew it was true, which was pretty sweet. We put a baptism date for her on August 13th. She only needs to attend church! She has promised a few times but never has gone yet, but I feel like she´ll be there this next Sunday!

The members down here are great, when they´re here. There are a lot of members here that work out of town and do a lot of traveling. A lot of people here travel like all the time. Especially when they´re on vacations, like they are now. There isn´t like anything to do here so everyone just leaves to other places. Like this Sunday there were only 38 people there and I had to give another talk during sacrament. I´ll probably have some good practice giving talks here. But the members here are great and willing to work with the missionaries and leave to visit people as well. I really like this branch more than my ward in Antofagasta. But the ward that I was in, in Antofa was the smallest out of them all. 

If you really want me to share in spanish I definitely could. But it´s all good, I don´t want to make you guys have to use google translate and not understand anything because google translate is super lame and usually doesn´t work haha. But if I really wanted to I could write all my emails in spanish. As for now my spanish is pretty good, there is still a lot that I need to work on. But for now I can understand a majority of what people are saying and I can say what I want to say and don´t usually have to think about it. Also my thoughts and everything are in spanish. But it really isn´t hard at all to convert to english when I write to you guys every week. 

WOW, there is an earthquake going on right now while I´m writing this. It´s pretty stong haha. This is the second time that I´ve felt an earthquake here in Taltal. It went on for a good amount of time but everythings good, it finished. Maybe it was just God calling everyone to repentance here or something.

(editors note by Jason -- I looked it up and it was a 6.2 earthquake not far from Tal Tal, about 43 miles deep -- Doesnt sound like it was too bad, no tsunami! Whew!)

Well after that experience hope you guys have a great week and that I don´t get taken by a Tsunami. Thank you guys for everything! Love you!!

Love

Elder Newkirk

Sorry for no photos this week... Still don´t have my camera.

week #29 busy week - Meeting the new mission President

Haha no your Google translate was good. I understood, don´t worry! But yeah I had a pretty crazy but fun week this last week! Pretty crazy because I´m writing today on a Wednesday! 

So this week we had a ton of different travels and a lot of our plans changed a few times. At first we thought that we were going to Copiapo Sunday and be there Monday for interviews with the new president. But that changed to Saturday. So we traveled to Copiapo on Friday to be there on Saturday. Then on Saturday we had a little conference with the new president to get to know him and his family. We were there with the zones of Copiapo, Vallenar, and our zone. So a total of 4 zones(because there are 2 zones in Copiapo). I got to see an Elder from my group(Elder Gali) in the MTC that´s in Vallenar that I haven´t seen since we got split up and he sent me the photo so I have one to send haha. Still haven´t found my charger, but I think there are other missionaries with the same charger so I´ll be asking around to see if I can try and charge my camera with someone elses charger.

Well continuing with what happened this week is that the president had his interviews with the zones from vallenar and copiapo there in copiapo and changed our interviews for this Monday in Chañeral. So after the small get to know the president and stuff we left and went back to Taltal. Then after church on Sunday we practically left in the afternoon again to travel to Chañeral to be there Monday for interviews. And then after that we asked the President if we could change our bus tickets to the next day so on Tuesday as a zone we could play soccer together and he approved it. So we stayed there another night and on Tuesday in the morning played soccer as a zone and had a BBQ. Then at like 5pm we left. But we had a problem in Chañeral to write so we got permission to write today. So that is why I´m writing today. We just got home to Taltal last night. So this week was pretty crazy and just practically traveling.

Also somethings really awesome is that we got permission here in Taltal to play soccer with the members. Since we are so far away as a zone he gave us permission to do so. All the other zones in the mission also can play with members but they need to have future investigators or investigators to play. But it is super awesome. Also he will be giving us permission to watch Disney movies! His wife said that she´ll be sending a list of movies that we are allowed to watch! They are making some awesome changes haha! The new president and his wife are really awesome! I really like them a lot. And he is only like 47 years old. 

Yeah last week when we went fishing we had to walk out there. It was like a 30 min walk. My shoes are all good for now. I honestly have no clue if they have my size here or not. But usually the thing here is that everyone is smaller. So they usually don´t have a ton of things in my size haha. But I think I should be able to find some if I need some, but for now everything is good with my shoes. 

Also the new mission president has a blog for the mission that has some more pictures around the mission and as well as some pictures of me with a ton of other missionaries and stuff. But here is the link. http://mcaferreira2016-2019.simplesite.com/429363319

Well I don´t really have any time to write anymore this week with everything that happened haha. But everything is going good here in Taltal! I´ll answer your question about the members here in taltal on Monday when I write again!

Hope you guys have a great week!!! Love you guys!

Love

Elder Newkirk

Elder Newkirk y Elder Gali